Disney Leg 1: Animal K'dom

We spent Sunday, our first day at Disney, at Animal Kingdom. And somehow we were one of a number of lucky visitors who got a "Magical Moment" parking pass. We got to park right up in front of the park instead of walking from way out in Tim-Buk-Tu parking like the rest of our party. Not a bad way to start your Disney week.


A shot from the opening of the park presentation by Minnie and Goofy and Mickey. It might as well have the been the Wiggles Concert all over again because I got a little watery at this point with the sheer excitement. Well, that, and Minnie is just so sweet and adorable.


Brooklyn struck this pose at all shows, parades, and fireworks. Maybe even some rides as well.


Just before his first 3D show: It's Tough to be a Bug. You'd never guess from his carefree expression that within minutes he would be grabbing my neck in mortal fear for his life and then hiding out under my legs until the show was over and he could get away.


The whole of us Higginbothams, Browns (minus Anna of course), and Talmadges in line for our first ride in the Dinoland portion of the park. Brooklyn got off before she got on...poor thing. But she seemed to enjoy waving at us every time we flew overhead just as much as we enjoyed flying overhead. Noah was, as always, fearless when it came to rides.



Noah loves carnival games so we indulged him at the easiest one we could find. It took three different game sessions and one silent prayer to God by his momma for him to finally win with his very last throw.

There was a big dinosaur playground area that could have easily been the highlight of the day for Noah had we let him stay as long as he liked. Why did we bother going to to Disney? We could have just taken him to the local playground and he's have been just as happy!


At the train station and on the train - one Brooklyn-approved ride.



And then the heavens parted and Noah met with his divine appointment with a Disney ice-cream man. Behold - the ever-popular, soon to be a terrible, melted mess - chocolate covered Mickey Mouse ice cream bar! You know he could have left Disney a happy boy after that point.


On our way out of the park we passed Tigger and Pooh and Eeyore in the flesh (or costume), so we made a quick detour to have Noah's first character pic taken. When his turn came, he turned away and cried in fear but Josh eased forward slowly and held him and that Pooh was so gentle. He just squatted and eased his hand forward to Noah from a distance. Oh, I could have hugged him myself for calming my baby's fears. With a little more encouragement, Noah carefully went to him and hugged him and then turned for another happy shot.



After that, we were too hot and tired to wait for pics with Eeyore and Tigger. Besides we were hurrying to meet the rest of our group at the Nemo show. Sadly, Noah was too scarred from the last dark theater (the 3D show) to trust this one even though we assured him it was not the same sort of show. We got through all of about 3 minutes with Noah under my legs again before we gave up and headed home.


Some closing thoughts on Animal Kingdom:

This was the first and last day we bothered to get ourselves to a park early to be there when it opened. Who needs to hurry up and wait in the heat and frenzy of a big crowd in the FL sun just to walk inside. No thanks!

You'll notice that, for a Kingdom named for the animals, little was said about the animals. We only did the safari ride and didn't bother to go see any other animals. Who can stand still and walk around looking at animals when there are rides and shows to be seen?! I guess we have just been to too many zoos already to appreciate seeing more of the same. And it didn't help that the animals we saw on the safari were few and far between and very lackluster when we did see them even though we went in the morning as suggested by several different guides and sources.

Skip the 3D shows if you have little ones! Or else be prepared for gusts of wind, squirts of water, stink bug smells, and critters crawling in your seat, not to mention the characters seeming to come off the screen into the audience. We should have heeded the warning that it could scare the little ones.

The Lion King show came highly recommended and it was good. But be careful to not give into the frenzy to hit every show. The kiddos just get tired of sitting when there is so much active fun to be had.

Definitely pack or rent a stroller. Even the bigger kids end up needing the ride. Heck, I could have used the ride. 2 hours into the day I had 2 blisters already. Which reminds me of another tip. Pack moleskin! Lee and Emily had some and it worked great!

We didn't ride a single ride that Noah couldn't ride, but my parents did. The new cool one at this park is Expedition Everest. Made my parents a little queasy actually. Apparently there is a good chunk of ride that goes backwards.

If you have little ones like we did - don't count on doing it all.

I can pretty reliably say we won't go back to this park again. Fun, but nowhere near as fun as Magic Kingdom.

Next stop - Downtown Disney!